Arana Sr., son Adam encounter terrible luck in Englishtown’s opening round

ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – After a promising two days of qualifying action, both Hector Arana Sr. and his youngest son Adam were unceremoniously dumped in Sunday’s first round of eliminations at the 45th annual Toyota NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

Hector, the 2009 world champion, had a rare -.124 red-light start on his Lucas Oil Buell that ended his race at the starting line and immediately gave opponent Chaz Kennedy the victory.

A few pairs later, Adam had an even tougher situation to deal with as his ProtectTheHarvest.com Buell failed to start for the burnout, giving Andrew Hines a solo pass for the win.

“I was fine and I felt good,” Hector said. “I staged, he staged. There was no rush, no games, nothing like that. It was just like a switch went on and off, like everything went black and came on and I reacted. As soon as I reacted, I knew right there and then what I had done.

“It’s so frustrating. If I could get out of my skin and kick myself, I would do it. That’s how mad I am, but I guess this is why it is a drag race because it’s not easy.”

Adam, coming off a first-round win in Atlanta two weeks ago, couldn’t make the call to the staring line after an electrical issue wouldn’t allow the Buell to start.

“It’s so disappointing,” Hector said. “That’s about all I can say. We all work so hard to get the bike ready and get it going as fast as we can and then that happens. Oh, well. All we can do is learn from it and hope it never happens again.”

The Aranas have a few weeks to regroup as they turn their attention to the second annual Auto Plus New England Nationals, which take place June 20-22 in Epping, N.H.